"I was basically looking for somewhere to host machines with free power and Internet [access]," and without a lot of red tape, Nelson said. The project started out with Nelson himself purchasing computers and letting people log onto them. He estimated spending US$20,000 to $25,000 during the first month of the project last spring.

"It became very apparent that the effort required in getting a network of as many different OSes as I would like to was not a trivial activity," said Nelson.

While centered on open source, Snakebite also is expected to allow projects for commercially developed software, although commercial projects may need to pay a fee to use the network, Nelson said. But the goal of the project is not commercially oriented. "My aim is to do something fun," he said.

Developers, for example, could test a patch to see if it runs on multiple platforms. Interested parties, though, must meet certain criteria pertaining to requirements in such areas as development infrastructure for developing on Snakebite. Developer collaboration also will be enabled. 

Technologies including Linux, Windows, and Unix variants, such as IBM AIX and Sun Solaris, are supported on Snakebite, which has had contributions from companies like Microsoft, which has provided Microsoft Developer Network license access to Windows server OSes. HP contributed some Itanium servers.